In the common desire that encompasses all of humanity, great shifts and unifications occur all the time. This system lives and develops, and everything in it shifts and intermixes all the time like waves in a sea. For this reason, many people enter it, draw closer and then further away from the upper goal.

We need to bring together a mass of people (not quantitative, but qualitative) who truly will wish to acquire the quality of bestowal, the quality of the upper world, the inner force that forms the universe, along with the force of reception, the only force that acts in our world. I believe that we have reached this point, and not because we are so strong and special, but because the world needs this. Baal HaSulam wrote that he achieved what he has because the world needed a revelation of the method of correction, and not because he was special.

The same thing is occurring today. After Baal HaSulam there was Rabash, then me, and then you. This whole chain exists only due to the fact that the world has already “hit rock bottom” and exists in complete crisis.

And the crisis is extremely complex and horrid. We don’t see it; we are poorly informed about it and know almost nothing. If we would listen to what instructors, decision-makers, and different organizations and institutes are saying, we would gasp in horror from the threatening state that we are in.

All this is evidence of the fact that the world truly needs the upper force and its correction; there is no other way. This is becoming revealed more and more every day. Over the next two months we will find ourselves in a great financial crisis and will see Europe’s catastrophe, and over the next two years there will be an enormous ecological catastrophe. The winter that has begun also will bring about plenty “surprises.”

All this will force humanity to ask the question concerning the system of governance, the governing force, and what can be done about one’s own state and the state of the world in such circumstances when nothing helps. And then they will be forced to hear what we are telling them.

Thus the world needs us, and this is why we are given attention from Above. We are formed into the group, force, and system that will be able to tell and set an example for the world of how to correctly bring ourselves into balance with the upper governing force. And then in this harmony we acquire absolute existence.

The world will ask itself this question. In spite of the problems with food, heat, safety, and other things that are necessary for life, the world will ask more and more about the meaning of its existence. After all, when a person feels poorly, he does not ask how he can run away from or compensate for his problems, but searches for the cause of the suffering, their meaning, and why he experiences these problems at all.

We will very quickly be assured that in addition to various revolutions and protests in all the countries today, a new wave is rising in the world concerning the purpose of the existence of the human being who is so small and helpless before nature and what he himself has ruined in the world. We will see that we have a special purpose and a high predestination and for this reason we are being moved forward.

This was always the case. If there was no need to begin the correction in ancient Babylon, Abraham, a Babylonian priest, would not have turned into a spiritual leader. And the whole spiritual stream, all the religions and faiths, derived precisely from his revelation of the upper world.

We still will discover how much the world needs us. We don’t feel it yet, but we still need to prepare ourselves for this. This is why I put so much emphasis on dissemination.

When we talk about the intention for the sake of the friend and the group, we shouldn’t forget about the world because presently we are the carriers of the spiritual knowledge, the spiritual method. Each of us needs to feel obliged to engage in the upbringing of humanity.
[62358]
From Sunday Virtual Lesson Series 11/27/2011

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Question: In order to bring the entire world to the final correction, do we need to completely tear away from it?

Answer: We don’t need to tear away from the world at all in order to correct it. How can we correct something in which we do not take part?

We need to rise in order to acquire the spiritual force: the force of bestowal, love, and connection between us. Then, when we acquire it and can safely hold onto it, we will be able to correct this world and control it.

We will see that essentially, we don’t need to do anything at all. Due to our unification, the upper degree will be revealed in our world to such an extent that it will acquire harmony and balance.

Right now, there is a big problem in the world that is not being advertised too much. It is the problem of cooling. We cannot imagine what could befall us over the next few years. The Gulf Stream could disappear, and North America, England, and Europe could turn into Siberia. This could be accompanied by famine and other huge problems. In addition, the crises in finance, education, upbringing, family life, and so on are obvious.

All this would come suddenly into balance on all levels of human activity and the environment as soon as we restore the balance on the next, higher level because the forces of governance descend to our world from there. However, for the time being, because we do not correspond to the upper level, we experience this lack of correspondence as a universal crisis.

Therefore, restoring the balance on the next level will cause forces of correct interaction with our world to descend from there. Then, both worlds will exist in harmony with each other. We suddenly will find that we are living in a comfortable world. Everything is okay, everyone has everything that they need, and there are no problems.

Thus, we cannot correct our world physically. No matter how much we try to correct and improve it, it just gets worse. Yet, if we reach harmony on the upper degree, we will bring our world into balance, comfort, convenience, and safety. This is what we are engaged in.

One cannot correct himself and his environment on the same level where he is situated. One needs to ascend to the next level for this.
[62361]
From Sunday Virtual Lesson Series 11/27/2011

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We need a very big change, a true inner revolution, as well as an external transformation, an absolutely new organization of human society. We will need to go through it in either a forced manner, under pressure and out of hopelessness, or we will understand where we are going and that we do not have any other choice before we are forced to do it.

After all, we are not dealing with unemployed people. We are dealing with people who have no need to do useless work, all of them together and each one individually. Besides life’s necessities that we have to provide for ourselves, everything else should be dedicated to the goal of our existence.

This is the essential question: What are we living for? Now it is taking center stage. Our entire life will be organized in accordance with this main question, and we will dedicate the biggest part of our time to it, besides doing the essential things to provide for our existence.

In other words, the question is not how to keep laid off people busy. We need to see the world in an opposite state. So, our approach to it should change completely. Everything in the past will fall apart. We should begin to build an environment, all the organizations, structures, and human relations in another way.

When I meet a friend, I would no longer ask him where he works, referring to the master to whom he belongs, such as a high-tech company, a bank, a garage, or any other place where he spends his entire day working. One’s job will no longer be as important. Work will become a simple necessity for providing for the needs of society. Man will dedicate several hours a day to this and receive everything he needs, just like everyone else. This is on condition that he advances and fills the main hours of his day with the attainment of a goal that is worthy of man.

Instead, I would ask him where he studies, in which group, and on what level. I would treat him as a person, not like the slave of the master whom he serves. First of all, we need to develop this notion, adopt this future image, and transition from the current state to the state I have painted briefly.

This will require a very strong turn in perception, sensation, and attitude. We must change from within, and this will not be easy. We must destroy our previous way of thinking and our heart. There cannot not be a bigger and more significant reformation than this one for a regular person living in this world because this pertains to the essence of life.

It determines what a person awakens with, what he goes to sleep with, how he spends his entire day, what he does, how society treats him, what it must do in relation to every person, and how to develop education and upbringing systems. All this must change.

We must envision this future image and understand the very first changes we must make in accordance with this. Even if the world does not yet understand this, it is the future. Any steps we now take, even the very initial ones, will lead in this direction.

This is similar to the way that a small child does not understand why he has landed in a day care where he will be educated and reared with the purpose of being sent off to a school. In the same way, people do not need to know about all the global changes that are awaiting them today. Gradually, as they take their first steps and change, they will be able to see a little farther and better understand and accept them as desirable.

Our objective is to develop an educational system where a person will change in the direction of a new state that he must attain in any case. The more active he is in this proposed process, the smoother and lighter the changes will be.

It is clear that he will not be able to change in one moment and become a new person, jumping from one state to another. This requires a real and very difficult inner revolution. However, we need to propose a process of development where the person would gradually change in the direction of the new world, without having a full understanding of what is happening to him along the way.

Gradually, the time we spend working and the values we are accustomed to will not be the only things to change. During the hours dedicated to study and unity, a person will begin to build himself, preparing for the new world so that his mind and heart will become “human” instead of the current mind and heart of a slave.
[62549]
From the Talk “Lessons on the New World” 12/1/2011

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We have become so involved in the game supported by the opinion of the entire society that it has completely enslaved us. We have come to a point where our entire mind and approach to life is connected to work. A person is afraid to retire. He wonders what he will do from morning until night with so much free time. He is not used to freely managing himself, and he does not want to be free.

Even when he gets home from work, he continues to work on the same computer. When he goes on vacation, he will not part with his phone or the Internet, constantly remaining connected to the same system like an enslaved, tiny cogwheel, one of many others.

This style, formed over the last decades, has determined such a direction in a person’s life that he is unable to feel free. Imagine if he were busy three hours a day, doing work essential for the society, thus providing for his existence. He could spend the rest of his time resting and doing the things that he enjoys. However, we cannot even imagine that this would be possible. We are so enslaved that we cannot even imagine what else we could do in life besides working.

We must experience a very big revolution because nature is now setting new conditions for us, changing both us from within and the environment around us. It is destroying our master: this entire, enormous human society that has enslaved us. In his way, it is forcing us to change and acquire a new view on life.

Life will become completely different. We will be forced to develop like humans. Instead of ten hours of work (and the rest of the time when you continued to think about it), you will work three hours and spend the rest of the time doing completely different things.

However, you need to understand what to do. After all, we will not just lay in the sun like lazy, fed animals, resting after having eaten and not doing anything until we become hungry once again. We will need to find “human” activities that man must do in this world.

Besides the three hours dedicated to work and a couple of hours dedicated to housework, the rest of the time will be spent doing what is the most important for a human being and brings fulfillment to the soul. A person will treat work and housework merely as unavoidable things that must be done in this world; he would be happy not doing these things. During the seven to eight hours that have been freed up from work, he will have to find a real activity, worthy of man, to which he can devote his entire soul.
[62552]
From the Talk “Lessons on the New World” 12/1/2011

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We see in the twenty-first century that the world has changed a lot. People used to be much freer. They have been pulled into a whirlpool of work and have become slaves. This even applies to the middle class and high-tech employees, politicians, economists, social and political scientists, and people of all professions. Every worker is completely sold to his job. We have become slaves.

Our entire life revolves around work. A modern person does not spend much time eating, drinking, or resting while seated in front of a TV. He wastes most of his time at work and spends an hour or two going back and forth. Thus, he spends his entire day at work.

Companies arrange their own day care centers and group retreats. They do everything possible to attach their employees even more strongly to their workplace. In this way, a person becomes a slave to his firm. He does not even understand that there is something else besides work. Work becomes the most important thing in life and fills his life completely.

When we meet an acquaintance, the first thing we ask is where do you work, what do you do, and how much do you make. Essentially, we do not treat them as a person, but as a professional. It is as if we do not see a person in front of us. We do not ask what interests him, what he has seen and experienced, or where he has been. It is as if his workplace is more important to us than the person. The most important thing is where he works and what he does.

A person’s main concerns are making sure that he does not get fired and whether he will be able to find a different job. Companies send their employees to professional training. Everything only revolves around work. A person spends at least ten hours a day on this. This is not a healthy life style at all.

We are destroying our foundation, the globe on which we live, all our natural resources and the ecology. We are like children who have lost track of time playing. Now, our mother needs to stop us. She has come to stop the game, telling us that the time has come to do other things, and we are unable to stop.
[62556]
From the Talk “Lessons on the New World” 12/1/2011

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In the News (from Evolutionary Psychology): “According to the social brain theory, primates have larger brains as it could be expected from their body sizes due to the adaptation to a more complex social life. Regarding humans, there were few studies about the relationship between theory of mind and frontal and temporal brain lobes. We hypothesized that these brain lobes, as well as the whole cerebrum and neocortex are in connection with the Sociability personality dimension that is associated with individuals’ social lives. Our findings support this hypothesis as Sociability correlated positively with the examined brain structures if we control the effects of body size differences and age. These results suggest that the social brain theory can be extended to human interindividual differences and they have some implications to personality psychology too.

“According to this hypothesis, the unusual brain size is due to the adaptation to a more complex social life. However, the exact social skills that resulted in this have not been clarified yet.

Social complexity requires large cognitive capacity. To live in a stable social group and sustain group cohesion members have to coordinate their behavior with others, as well as to manage complex relational information. Individuals have to maintain more relationships and be able to respond appropriately to social interactions. Individuals have different goals and desires that might not conflict with those of others.

“The authors [Barrett, Henzi, and Dunbar, 2003] suggest that ‘the ability to reason causally, the ability to reason analogically, the ability to exert cognitive control to generate and assess alternative options, and the ability to formulate these options into alternative sequences of future actions and to select between them’ are critical to develop high-level sociocognitive abilities.”

My Comment: Namely connection, altruism, rather than individual egoism leads to a greater development at the level of “Homo Sapiens.” An egoistic individualist can reach good results in a competitive society, but during the transition to a global, integrally connected society, his exclusiveness becomes an obstacle that needs to be overcome in the framework of a new society.
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Opinion: (Alain de Benoist, a French philosopher and political scientist, from gazeta.au): “A market economy is based on constant growth: more production, consumption, and profit. It cannot stop growing because then it will collapse. This mentality was forced upon people: work harder, consume more, and have a higher profit.

“This is the logic of capitalism: increase capital by any means. Material resources are limited, so the problem of the growth limit arises. This is an ecological limit: Economic growth can lead to an environmental disaster….

“Consequently, the crisis will be global. It will go beyond economics and finance and change the world completely. We must rethink our economic principles and make a clear division between private and state, public, economy. We need more ideas and the decolonization of thoughts as the economy is already deeply ingrained in the very mentality of people.”
[62137]

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Question: How do I break through the shell that does not let me feel the unity of my friends?

Answer: The shell can be broken only by hitting it repeatedly. I know from my own experience that it was only possible to reach unity by persistence, stubbornness, and continuous daily work over the course of few years. In our time, this period of time is becoming much shorter because the world is different, the pace is different. In any case, there are numerous actions to breaking apart this shell.

You must simply forget about yourself and enter the group. Being in it, you feel disturbances, a desire to distance yourself from the friends; you are in a kind of internal storm, you feel sick. This is not important. Stay inside to the maximum, regardless of everything! Get used to your feelings and stay in the group.

Do everything possible in order to come under the influence of others to the maximum. It is not important that you have all kinds of negative feelings, thoughts, and qualities in relation to them. The feelings, thoughts, and qualities arising in you come from Above on purpose, and that’s one thing. It is entirely another thing when regardless of them, you remain together with everyone. This is very hard, very difficult.

Later, you will see that all of your personal thoughts and qualities are those that you needed to get rid of and that all your wisdom, understanding, and personal attainment are worthless. You simply need to erase them in order to enter the group like an embryo into its mother’s womb. Then you will begin to develop spiritually. That is why you must keep trying with all of your strength to break through this shell.

It is giving in; it is cracking now. It will crack even more so when we get together, millions of people from all around the planet, separated physically but united by hearts. We really will get a great power in order to break through the Machsom (the barrier). Everything is moving toward this goal.
[61696]
From Sunday Virtual Lesson Series 11/20/2011

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Opinion (Deena Stryker, The South African Civil Society Information Service): “An Italian radio program’s story about Iceland’s on-going revolution is a stunning example of how little our media tells us about the rest of the world. Americans may remember that at the start of the 2008 financial crisis, Iceland literally went bankrupt. The reasons were mentioned only in passing, and since then, this little-known member of the European Union fell back into oblivion.

“As one European country after another fails or risks failing, imperiling the Euro, with repercussions for the entire world, the last thing the powers that be want is for Iceland to become an example. Here’s why:

“Five years of a pure neo-liberal regime had made Iceland, (population 320 thousand, no army), one of the richest countries in the world. In 2003 all the country’s banks were privatized, and in an effort to attract foreign investors, they offered on-line banking whose minimal costs allowed them to offer relatively high rates of return. The accounts, called IceSave, attracted many English and Dutch small investors. But as investments grew, so did the banks’ foreign debt. In 2003 Iceland’s debt was equal to 200 times its GNP, but in 2007, it was 900 percent. The 2008 world financial crisis was the coup de grace. The three main Icelandic banks, Landbanki, Kapthing and Glitnir, went belly up and were nationalized, while the Kroner lost 85% of its value with respect to the Euro. At the end of the year Iceland declared bankruptcy.

“But the foreign financial community pressured Iceland to impose drastic measures. The FMI and the European Union wanted to take over its debt, claiming this was the only way for the country to pay back Holland and Great Britain, who had promised to reimburse their citizens.

“The Head of State, Olafur Ragnar Grimsson, refused to ratify the law that would have made Iceland’s citizens responsible for its bankers’ debts, and accepted calls for a referendum.

“In the March 2010 referendum, 93% voted against repayment of the debt. The IMF immediately froze its loan.

“But Icelanders didn’t stop there: they decided to draft a new constitution that would free the country from the exaggerated power of international finance and virtual money.

“To write the new constitution, the people of Iceland elected twenty-five citizens from among 522 adults not belonging to any political party but recommended by at least thirty citizens. This document was not the work of a handful of politicians, but was written on the Internet. The constituent’s meetings are streamed on-line, and citizens can send their comments and suggestions, witnessing the document as it takes shape.

“The people of Greece have been told that the privatization of their public sector is the only solution. And those of Italy, Spain and Portugal are facing the same threat. They should look to Iceland. Refusing to bow to foreign interests, that small country stated loud and clear that the people are sovereign.”
[60813]

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Opinion (from New Scientist): “The eurozone, like the rest of the world economy, is a complex networked system. That gives it properties economists rarely consider but which could help us understand the current crisis.

“What is a complex network?

“Complex networks have many interconnected components which influence each other’s behaviour. These changes then feed back on each other. A famous example is the numbers of predators and prey in a given environment, which vary in a complex interdependent way. The eurozone – the 17 countries that share a common currency, the euro – is similarly interdependent, with similar feedback mechanisms.

“All complex networks are governed by a balance between negative feedback, such as interest rates, which is stabilising, and positive feedback, such as the self-reinforcing erosion of trust in markets, which is destabilizing.

“How does that help us understand economic crises?

“In certain circumstances, one type of feedback can end up dominating the system, causing it to change so dramatically that it flips to another state. Examples include the way animal populations can suddenly collapse or the way economies can slip into recession.

“These tipping points tend to be highly unpredictable. Even so, computer models of the system can still show how the system can change. Yet leading economics journals, he Len Fisher at the University of Bristol, author of Crashes, Crises and Calamities: How we can use science to read the early-warning signs] says, do not accept computer-modelling studies.

“Can we understand complex systems well enough to control them?

“Maybe. The diversity of a network’s components and the density and strength of its connections – called its connectivity – affect the system’s resilience, or resistance to change. More connections make a system more resilient: if one component fails others can fill in. But only up to a point. Go past a certain threshold and more connectivity makes the system less resilient because a single failure can cascade to every other component.

“The trick is to get the balance right.

[Read more →]

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